The merging of neutron stars, generating potent gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), is crucial for the creation of heavy elements in the universe. However, a 2021 discovery necessitates incorporating long burst GRBs, previously associated with Two neutron stars begin to merge in this illustration, a
For the last few decades, astronomers have generally divided GRBs into two categories. Long bursts emit gamma rays for two seconds or more and originate from the formation of dense objects like black holes in the centers of massive collapsing stars. Short bursts emit gamma rays for less than two seconds and are caused by mergers of dense objects like neutron stars.
A neutron star is a type of astronomical object that results from the gravitational collapse of a massive star after a supernova explosion. This collapse crushes the atomic structure of the star, forcing protons and electrons to combine into neutrons. Hence the name “
Neutron stars are incredibly dense, with a mass of about 1.4 to 3 times that of the sun but compressed into a sphere with a diameter of only about 20 kilometers (roughly the size of a small city). This means that a sugar-cube-sized amount of neutron star material would weigh about as much as a mountain.
Despite their small size, neutron stars have extremely strong gravitational and magnetic fields. They also rotate very rapidly, with some spinning hundreds of times per second. Some neutron stars emit beams of electromagnetic radiation from their poles, and when these beams sweep past Earth, we detect them as pulses, leading to the name “